She dropped her head quickly.
“No, Johann. You do not understand me. I shall never love him. I wish you would see that I am just what you are to him, a devoted friend, and nothing more.”
“Then it is true,” pursued her cousin, feeling his way delicately, “that there is some one else?”
“Yes,” said Dorothea, blushing, “it is true.”
“And do you still object to tell me who it is?”
Dorothea looked at him gravely.
“Some day perhaps I shall tell you,” she said. And she turned hastily and ran away, leaving Johann with a sense of disappointment which he could not quite analyse, and which continued to trouble him in the midst of his anxieties about the King.
His first step was to return to the palace, where he made his way straight to Maximilian’s apartments. On the threshold he was met by Karl.
“Tell his Majesty I ask to see him immediately,” he said abruptly.
“His Majesty has given strict orders that he is not to be disturbed by any one,” was the glib answer.